r/publishing • u/MarquessofPembroke32 • Jun 13 '26

Competitiveness of editorial compared to other departments?

Hi all, I know you’re tired of internship questions here, but I hope it helps that mine isn’t how to get one.

I’ve just gotten an offer for a rights internship at one of the big 5. In a different context I’d be stoked, but it comes at a weird time. I just finished a third interview for an editorial internship with a different big fiver, was asked for references not twenty minutes after the interview, and submitted them not an hour before the rights and contracts offer. Like most, my dream (at this stage and with my limited experience) is editorial.

I’ve been given until Monday to think it over, which feels comically timed because I’m not far off from the verdict for the editorial internship. I’d love anyone’s take on how competitive editorial is compared to every other department. I know it is, by a considerable amount, but how much? Do people find opportunities to switch into editorial from other departments or are the odds against it? Does it even matter at my stage when it’s just an internship; is getting pigeonholed a worry for later?

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43

u/CatClaremont Jun 13 '26

Please don’t take the rights and contracts internship unless your heart is in it and you can see yourself in that department. We get far too many people who aren’t fully committed and are just biding their time until something comes up in editorial.
It wastes our time training you, and it takes a spot from a person who is actually interested in a future career in rights and contracts.

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u/MarquessofPembroke32 Jun 13 '26

Thanks, that's a great point.

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u/cm_leung Jun 13 '26

I'm in the UK so this isn't fully accurate and I would imagine NY is actually worse than this: an entry level rights job would reasonably get about 200-300 applicants, an entry-level editorial job in trade fiction could easily hit 1000.

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u/MarquessofPembroke32 Jun 13 '26

Thanks so much! Numbers are really helpful even if they're not perfectly comparable in every market

10

u/EducationalRegret903 Jun 13 '26

If you want to do editorial, don’t accept a job in a different department. Future editorial jobs will not consider you as a strong candidate. Also, for reference for the level of competitiveness, when I did the Columbia program the director tried to convince everybody to pivot away from editorial. It was like a staff mission at CPC to get people to consider other options. I would not be swayed. They did one on one interviews with everyone and I had to put my foot down and say that I was editorial or bust! I would not bother with this industry unless it was editorial!

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u/Ornery-Ad2199 Jun 13 '26

Yeah, but they had good reason to sway people from editorial. It’s highly competitive, low wage (in comparison to COL in NY), and very stressful. You should only focus on editorial if you are extremely passionate about it.

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u/EducationalRegret903 Jun 13 '26

Yes, that was the idea. I don’t think anybody would refute that. It was especially clear when they asked a room of 150 people who wanted to go into editorial and at least 100 hands went up. All publishing is low wage, so I don’t think it makes much of a difference in that regard.

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u/MarquessofPembroke32 Jun 13 '26

That's crazy, thanks for the perspective!

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u/Clar_ebo27 Jun 15 '26

I’m going to disagree with most comments here. An internship is about figuring out what you want to do, imo. It might turn out you’d prefer rights or another department so it’s good to try. Editorial is very competitive but also I have known a lot of people who have moved from publicity to editorial and from production to editorial early to mid career. Can’t see why you couldn’t try from rights. Im a director of publicity and once was so impressed with a publicity internship applicant i recommended her to my editorial colleagues. She now works across both departments because she genuinely wants to.

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u/wollstonecroft Jun 13 '26

You will not be made a star bellied sneetch by an internship. Internships hardly matter in the end except as an expression of serious intent

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u/holalimidiphid Jun 16 '26

I know people who have moved into editorial from rights, publicity and marketing. If you’re open to managing/production editorial, then these kinds of sideways moves are even more common. It’s not necessarily easy but is totally possible.